A hydraulic valve directs the flow of a liquid medium, usually oil, through a hydraulic system. The direction of the oil flow is determined by the position of a spool or a poppet. The size of the valve may be determined by the maximum flow of the hydraulic system through the valve and the maximum system pressure.
An example valve may have a movable element, e.g., a poppet, inside a sleeve, which is disposed inside a housing. It may be desirable to have a retention mechanism that retains the sleeve within the housing when the valve is being handled (e.g., shipped, packaged, etc.) such that the sleeve is not disassembled from the housing prior to installation. It may also be desirable to have a retention mechanism that allows disassembly of the sleeve from the housing for maintenance purposes, for example, without damaging the valve.
An example three-way valve may include a poppet that is movable by an actuation mechanism (e.g., electric, hydraulic, pneumatic, or manual). The poppet may be seated on a valve seat formed inside the sleeve, thus allowing flow from a first port to a second port. Once the valve is actuated, the poppet moves off the seat and can be seated on a bushing inserted within the sleeve thus allowing fluid flow from the first port to a third port.
In conventional valves, the bushing can be screwed inside the sleeve, or in other examples, the bushing can be retained within the sleeve via a nut that is screwed inside the sleeve and/or the bushing. Adding threads to components of the valve increases manufacturing cost. Further, with a configuration where the bushing is threaded inside the sleeve or retained by a threaded nut, the bushing, sleeve, and housing are made to be precisely concentric to allow for operation of the valve without leakage. The valve can leak if there are slight misalignments between its components. Controlling tolerance of the parts of the valve to high concentricity precision adds further cost to the valve. It may thus be desirable to have a valve that does not involve threading and can tolerate misalignments between the parts. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.